1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for releasing a fishing line and for retrieving a major portion thereof, when the line's terminal end is caught, snagged or is otherwise inaccessible to a person who is fishing.. The novel features and principles of the present invention while particularly applicable to the fishing art may be extended to other fields of art having a need for the retrieval of similarly situated cables, wires, ropes, optical fibers and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Eons ago, when some coastal caveman figured that there were more fish on or near the bottom than there were at the surface, he tied a rock to his primitive line and began to fish the depths of the oceans, lakes and other such bodies of water.
It is likely that this caveman had several size rocks and lines handy, in case the line and rock became lost in a struggle with a fish or to the bottom as a result of a hopeless snag. Indeed this later scenario is likely, in view of several ingeniously shaped stones, fashioned for fishing weights, that have been found among artifacts in waters proximate to ancient Inca and pre-Inca civilizations in South America. As civilization progressed through the passage of time, fishing weights and tackle were improved, but the basic problems associated with retrieving a line which has been snagged beneath a body of water still persist today.
Accordingly, it is a general proposition well recognized in the fishing art that most bodies of fishable waters are infested with ensnarling vegetation, debris, coral shipwrecks and other obstructions upon which hooks, lures, plugs and other tackle may, from time to time become embedded or snagged during the fishing process.
Traditionally accepted methods for releasing snagged fishing tackle include: cutting the line at the end nearest to the angler and taking one's losses; or the futile expenditure of time, patience and effort in an attempt to free the snagged lure and associated tackle. While this latter course of action is somewhat frustrating, it is the alternative which a great majority of anglers elect to take although it bears certain disadvantages, including the risk of loss or damage to a major portion of the snagged line.
More specifically, attempts at retrieving a snagged line often involve the relocation of the boat or angler to a location behind the point of ensnarement. Once so positioned, the angler exerts tension on the line by pulling and jerking the line. If the angler is lucky, the line and tackle will come free, otherwise the line breaks or remains snagged. More often than not, when the line cuts or breaks or comes free, it does so abruptly, which can be dangerous. In those instances where the line does come free it has often been twisted and stretched, thereby, reducing its strength and utility for further fishing.
A further disadvantage of pulling and jerking the line is that the angler has no control of where the line will break, if it indeed breaks at all. If the line breaks near the angler, then the angler would have been better off to have cut the line,either way, the angler looses out. Even more importantly, the environment ultimately suffers as a result of the lost line. More particularly, fishing line, which is normally composed of nylon monofilament degrades quite slowly and the tangle of the line stripped off a reel clutters fishing grounds for years. This lost line has the disadvantage of creating an eyesore and a nuisance which can foul up a fishing area and provide a lethal trap for birds, fish and other wildlife.
Many devices have heretofore, been devised in order to retrieve line lures, hooks, plugs, and associated tackle. These devices have been comprised of various geometric configurations, sizes and clamping means to fasten to the fishing line. Many, if not all of these devices have met with only limited degrees of success. By and large, they have been impractical or unsatisfactory because their weight, size and/or complexity made them to cumbersome to store and handle in an ordinary tackle box. Additionally, many of the related art devices were difficult and time consuming to apply and release as well as being generally inefficient for their intended purpose.
Exposed cutting surfaces on some related art devices further complicated use by compromising user safety for functional design inadequacy. More often than not anglers, not only experienced the unnecessary loss of valuable fishing line and tackle but also incurred loss of the lure retriever as well. On some occasions the cost of a lost retrieving device was far in excess of the lost lure and associated tackle.
Experience indicated that the majority of these related art devices were often incapable of rendering the desired performance because of inadequate design, complexity of component parts, operator error or simple ineffectiveness. Oftentimes, these devices were not free to travel in tight spaces, lacked mobility, and became entangled upon their control lines, utilized unreliable dissolving tabltts to control their mechanisms, and/or required a multiplicity of hands to be applied, operated and released.
To further complicate matters, many related art devices were overly aggressive in their goals, attempting to recover both the line and the associated tackle connected thereto. While these goals are admirable it is not yet believed that this can be done reliably under constantly changing and therefore unknown conditions.
More exactly, the major failing of these all encompassing retrieving devices is that they assume a particular condition of ensnarement and generally are specifically designed for retrieval under such a given situation. In practice, however, an angler is generally unaware of exactly what circumstances have caused the line and associated tackle to become snagged. Accordingly, an angler would not know which prior art device to use in a given situation. Guess work led to frustration and losses of both the line and retrievers.
From the foregoing, the need should be appreciated for a safe to use, environmentally beneficial, small, reusable, inexpensive, reliable and easy to handle line saving device that operates effectively under myriad situations. Accordingly, a fuller understanding of the invention may be obtained by referring to the SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION, and the DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT, in addition to the scope of the invention as defined by the claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.